Chapter 35
ACCORDING to Corona, Adolunde Knights and soldiers had taken up residence in Fol Castle during the war. With the onslaught of Ten Day Fever victims, the recently liberated Fol had neither the supplies nor power to withstand an attack from Maruk. From what she saw of Fol before, Yuki agreed that was the smart thing to do.
But this is too much.
Since when did the men in the bar start drinking? More than a few had bright-red faces and others were hiccupping and slurring their words. Yuki glared at them all equally and shook with rage.
“I can’t believe this,” she spat for the nth time. The raucous laughter and jubilant chatter inside died to the same silence hanging over the empty streets.
“How can you drink at a time like this?” she hissed. The words echoed off the walls of the silent room. “You drink when the people of Fol are suffering and grieving…”
At her pointed glare some averted their eyes, hung their head, scratched their cheek, or silently guzzled their drink. The reactions varied from person to person.
“Why aren’t you trying to help them? Don’t you have a Ten Day Fever initiative or way to support the sick?! Why—” Yuki couldn’t continue after getting that far. Putting both hands over her mouth like she was sick, she shook her head vehemently. She didn’t want to look at the Knights’ faces. Leaving her talking to her anger would lead to her saying something horrible to them.
A glass suddenly shattered against the ground. Yuki jumped at the loud sound. Fragments littered the ground around her feet. Someone chucked a glass at her.
“Don’t’cha speak ‘ike ya know what’cha blabberin’ ‘bout!” a man slurred and glared at Yuki with red cheeks and glazed over eyes. Glass shards—from the bottle he threw—spun across the ground as he kicked them toward her with his unsteady gait. “Got sick of stayin’ locked up quiverin’ in ya pretty ‘ittle ‘ouse and came ‘ere to lay ya ‘igh and mighty opinion on us, did ya?! Huh?!”
My high and mighty opinion?
“You’re wrong! That’s not what I’m here for!” Yuki sharply raised her voice.
“Tell me, what am me wrong ‘bout?!” the man shouted pounding his fist against the table he leaned on for support.
That’s not what I came here for… Yuki couldn’t find the words to counter with. What’s wrong with this place?
Unusual silence stilled the room, enough to make anyone forget they were in a bar.
Something feels strange.
The mood coming from the Knights perplexed her. If they lashed out at her, she could have said her piece.
“Ya don’t know smack ‘bout anythin’! Nothin’! Not one bit of it!” the man bellowed in a voice closer to a shriek from a dying man than a Knight.
“That’s far enough,” said a sickeningly sweet and well-defined voice.
“…!” The drunk grudgingly shut his mouth.
The young man with copper hair touching the center of his back calmly stared at Yuki. “You too, miss. Don’t say any more.”
“…Are you the person in charge here?”
The young man who looked somewhere in his mid-twenties lightly shrugged. “Person in charge? Now that’s a new one. The highest ranked officer is tucked away in his warm bed in the castle, embarking on a journey through dreamland about now,” the man ridiculed with superficial friendliness. Disgust for him instantly broiled inside Yuki.
“Don’t joke with me,” she fumed.
“It’s no joke. The one in charge of this place has been sleeping the whole time. These guys here have been made to look and act like Knights, but they’re just a mishmash of grunt soldiers taken from commoners in Fol and the surrounding towns.”
A bug started chirping somewhere in the room. The incessant sound of its chirping was a nuisance to the ears.
“Do you understand what this means? Hm? The Ten Day Fever is prevalent in Fol. We also don’t know when Maruk will attack again. The only soldiers present are makeshift ones who’ve barely had any training at all.” The young man’s sharp eyes pierced Yuki. He wasn’t just looking at her—he was tearing her apart with his eyes. “Fol has been discarded. Abandoned. Not just Fol either. Us too.”
Yuki was thunderstruck. But…but Vigo said the country would support Fol so we don’t have to.
“The national treasury has dried up after the long, drawn-out war. The rapid spread of the Ten Day Fever is reducing our numbers at a harrowing rate. But soldiers are a necessity. Moreover, Fol is the stronghold Prince Lucat only just recovered. There’s no guarantee they won’t take over it again during our instability. It’s not like Adolunde is just going to quietly give it back either.
“So in a show of military strength, they’re dressing up the militia and treating them like Knights. But there aren’t any reinforcements or support coming for us either,” the man explained, gesturing to the men dressed as Knights.
“You won’t be getting reinforcements?” Yuki asked, her feet planted in the entryway with glass glittering around her.
“Didn’t you hear me? Fol has been abandoned.”
Aridol was in the midst of war and everyone desperately struggled to survive amid the sorrow and pain. People fought thinking their lives would become slightly better if they bettered their country through war.
They’re fighting for their country and were still abandoned? Why?
Beyond a doubt, Yuki thought the Knights were subjugating Fol. By all appearances, the Knights were receiving relief and taking advantage of Maruk not attacking—all to live the easy life while everyone else suffered. They enjoyed their drinking and laughter while the townspeople were locked away in their homes.
Now I get it… The weird sense she got from the soldiers in the bar suddenly made sense. Everyone here is suffering too.
“Tell me, can you imagine it? Humble farmers and merchants are being propped up and treated as soldiers. Not just any soldiers but the highest class—Knights. They are abruptly forced to bear arms when they haven’t touched a sword or a spear a day in their life and without any training are told to kill people.
“To top it off, they’re not even sure when the enemy they’re supposed to kill is gonna show up. Heck, the place they were stationed is crawling with disease. Even if they never have to fight a battle, they’ll likely catch the illness and die anyway. These men who left their families and loved ones behind are living every day in fear of a future they can’t foresee.”
The young man’s silky hair glimmered under the bar light. He was talking about something grim, but had a mocking sneer on his face the entire time—strongly indicating the truth behind his words.
“Thinking your death might come today or tomorrow or the next day would start to make anyone go mad. Are you going to mock them for drowning their fears in alcohol? They don’t get to do it every day either. Just a few get the chance every week. They aren’t shirking their patrol and guard duty. Do you still shame them for their weakness?”
Yuki hung her head and loosely shook it.
I can’t say that now.
The smiles she saw on the two Knights earlier had been smiles of relief over their temporary reprieve from their fears of the dreaded future to come. Yuki couldn’t feel the same roaring anger she had earlier.
“…I say they’re on patrol, but it’s not accomplishing anything. Even if we threaten and forbid people who walk around during the Witch’s Hour, the number of infected doesn’t decrease. Everything we’re doing is all for naught,” he said cynically. Yuki shook her head again.
I ruined their one place of escape and rest.
The possibility of dying tomorrow—Yuki was no stranger to it as she had a traumatizing taste of that fear in the tower. On more than one occasion she considered escaping from reality. And here she was now ranting and berating the people in this bar for doing the exact same thing.
I’m the worst.
A wave of nausea caused by self-loathing threatened to bring bile to her throat. Impulsively, she became annoyed and self-righteously ranted and raved at them.
“…I’m sorry.”
“I don’t mind. People who don’t know better would misunderstand by looking, I’m sure. It’s also a fact we’re drinking when the townspeople are suffering.”
Yuki still shook her head, ashamed to the point she wanted to disappear. She despised herself for getting so worked up earlier.
“I ruined the mood here…” she croaked.
“Don’t let it get to you,” he said in a chipper tone. The nonchalant cheeriness to his voice didn’t fit the solemn bar. “Aah, but if you reaaally want to make it up to us…” Yuki slowly lifted her head and saw the mischievous look in his eyes and grin. “If a future beauty like you would accompany us for a bit, pouring our drinks, these squalid mongrels will get distracted and forget all about what happened,” he laughed. The man who chucked the glass at her laughed too.
“We’re not so bad a girl like her has to worry after us. I mean, we get to have our fill drinking like this every once in a while. Who can be bad after that?”
Laughter erupted across the room. Some of the men started cheering and jeering, bringing about more laughs.
“Leaving the jokes behind, I’m relieved we have someone like her still around to challenge us for our laziness. It means Fol isn’t doomed yet.” The young man placed his glass on the table and stood. “The night is late. I’ll escort the future beauty home so she doesn’t encounter the Witch’s curse.”
“Lord Rhad!” one of the men called him to a halt. “I’ll go for you.”
Once the men heard that, they all started offering their names to go in his place.
“What’re you thinking? I can’t let you drunks go. Besides…” Rhad looked Yuki over. “It’s the privilege of a lady-killer to see a beauty home.” Before he finished speaking, he wrapped his arm around her waist and tugged her against him.
“~~~!” Startled, she became tongue-tied.
An irresistibly sweet whisper tickled her ear, “You needn’t come fishing for men in places like this. I’ll come for you in three years, so wait patiently at home for me, sweetheart.”
“Excuse me?!” Yuki shouted.
The bar instantly filled with jubilance and raucous laughter again.